Tuesday, June 19, 2012

We need to gain perspective on things when it comes to homophobia. For example, look at this video of a Los Angeles pastor at a pride parade claiming that gays eat human wastes:

It's hilarious, isn't it?

Then again, check out another scene just like it. From Youtube:

In this scene from Vanguard's "Missionaries of Hate," correspondent Mariana van Zeller attends a press conference during which Pastor Martin Ssempa shows graphic gay porn to a room full of international journalists. Mariana traveled to Uganda to learn more about the growing influence of American religious groups has led to a movement to make homosexuality a crime punishable by death:

Our struggle for equality is worldwide. Let us realize that what may be funny to us is death to our brothers and sisters across the waters. It's something to remember that no matter how ludicrous homophobia may seem, don't spend so much time laughing that you forget how dangerous it truly is.

Editor's note - Today begins Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters' "March to One Million." In less than a month, this blog will have it's 1,000,000 hit. Not bad for a part-time blog, huh? Seriously though, on the right side of the blog are what I deem are some of the best postings of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters during its five and a half year run. Feel free to read as many as you like.

Last Saturday, the National Organization for Marriage linked to a UK Telegraph article pulling the hysteria act about marriage equality:

UK Telegraph: Teachers Could be Forced to Promote Gay Marriage in Classrooms

Parents will be powerless to prevent their children being taught about gay marriage at school if ministers press ahead with plans to legalise the move, it has been claimed.

Aidan O’Neill QC has provided the Catholic Church with a legal opinion stating that equality laws mean teachers will be forced to emphasise the validity of same-sex marriages.

Mothers and fathers with “traditional and often religiously-based views” will be “hard pressed” to insist that their offspring are educated in line with their convictions, he said.

The Catholic Church in Scotland, which commissioned the opinion, said it raised the prospect of classrooms being “flooded” with teaching materials promoting gay marriage.

Although the opinion considers the position in Scotland, where Alex Salmond’s administration is expected to legalise same-sex marriage, it is thought it could apply south of the Border where David Cameron is planning to do the same.

It's fascinating the language used in this article. How does one "promote" gay marriage? Is talking about the fact that gays can marry the same as "promoting" it?

We are dealing with some serious semantic mind games here. The mindset seems to be that if marriage equality is legalized, then schools in the UK will be forced to talk about gay marriage. And of course through NOM's osmosis, this should send a scary message when it comes to allowing marriage equality in this country.

It's so easy to manipulate people through fear and the thought of their children being harmed has to be one of the biggest fears of many.

But in this case, there is really nothing to fear.

I don't think that I am making a wild guess when I say that children from same-sex households already attend UK public schools just like they attend American schools.

So if there is a worry that talking about marriage equality would mean talking same-families and homosexuality, then I got news for NOM and the Catholic Church in the UK:

Discussions about marriage equality AND homosexuality AND same-sex parenting are already happening in schools in the UK and America. Children from no matter whatever household they come from tend to talk about their families.

And these discussions should continue. Are children from same-sex households supposed to be quiet about their families as if they don't exist? Are they supposed to be ashamed of their families? Of course not.

It always amazes me when folks like NOM and others pull the "our children will be corrupted" riot act, they always omit the simple but crucial facts that same-sex families exist, their children attend public schools, and these children will not and should not be ashamed of their families.

The omission is deliberate and it says more about NOM and others allegedly attempting to "save children" than it does about the idea of marriage equality.

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.